Appetizers: My husband, Jim, ordered a hard-shell taco with beef, and I got a tamale with chicken and red chile sauce. The taco was fantastic, a flour tortilla that was deep-fried to perfection and filled with tender, shredded beef — at $1.95 it’s a steal. The tamale was also good — wonderfully sweet corn outside though there could have been a little more chicken and chile inside, still quite good and again a steal at $1.95. Spirits: Jim had a Corona ($2.75), and I tried the Spanish sangria ($3.95). The sangria was good, though I expected it to be sweeter and have more fruit. There’s a good selection of domestic and imported beers and several wines by the glass, but no liquor is served.

Entrées: On a previous lunch visit, I ordered the quesadilla al gusto ($6.50). It was big with lots of freshly grilled vegetables and chunks of tender chicken held together by just the right amount of cheese. Lots of good, smoky grill flavor. On our dinner visit, I ordered Moctezuma’s burrito ($7.95), a flour tortilla stuffed with beans, cheese and that wonderful grilled chicken. It’s served in a light ranchero sauce with sour cream and guacamole on the side. First, this is a huge serving. The beans are mashed and mixed with the cheese to make the whole thing surprisingly creamy and rich, and that chicken is just wonderful — marinated, I’d guess, and then grilled to smoky perfection. My husband ordered the chimichanga ahogada ($8.25), which is similar to the burrito, only deep-fried. As good as my order was, I have to confess that deep-frying the whole thing adds another delightful dimension. Both dishes came with Spanish rice on the side. It was fine but nothing out of the ordinary.Now, as for the namesake guacamole, I have to make a confession: I don’t care for guacamole. But since I could hardly leave it out of the review, I got the opinion of folks who do like it. Friends at lunch as well as my husband all assure me that the guacamole is quite good. It certainly looks good, creamy with nice chunks of avocado — wish I liked it!Desserts: We had absolutely no room for dessert, so we thought we’d get some churros ($1.95) to go. The waitress misunderstood the “to go” part and brought us a lovely little dish of four churros with whipped cream and caramel. We dived in; they were outstanding, and as full as I was, I could have eaten another dish of them. Service: On my lunch visits, the service was friendly and fast. On the much more crowded dinner visit, service was still friendly but a little confused and on the slow side. The entrees came out ahead of the appetizers, which our waitress seemed to have forgotten. We reminded her, she apologized profusely and brought them out quickly. Once we were done eating, it took quite a while for our waitress to circle back to us. The caveat here, though, is that everyone was incredibly nice and apologetic. The service wasn’t all that good, but it was so friendly and warm that we didn’t really mind.The verdict: Ole’s is a warm, inviting spot for Mexican food that’s a little closer to what you might actually find south of the border. Just be patient with the servers. Final rating: 4 stars (out of 5).